Walk the Dog! (Ness Smash attack theory thread)

[Denjinpachi]

The title may be a little misleading because Ness also uses a bat as a smash attack, but I think that it'll do for now! So, ive seen a lot of different Ness players take different approaches, from the defensive grab-setup Ness, to the full agro downtilting to victory Ness. But I've noticed, almost none are using the smash attacks in ways that can really benefit them, or at least can be somewhat stylish in use of punishing, following up, and edgeguarding. In order to give a good example of what I wanna see in this thread, Ness has a pretty sick, and funny edgeguard on characters that rely on snapping to the ledge with his yo-yo upsmash. It actually has a lingering hitbox over the ledge, and it hangs there as long as you charge it. So, for example if Fox or Falco side-b to the ledge off stage, you can hang the yo-yo out there, and force them to try to UP-B back to the ledge, in which case, you can just F-Smash with the bat tipper for free. Now, clearly there are more optimal edge guarding opportunities, but with the chance for a meta to develop now, I wanna hear your guys' ideas on how you can utilize Ness' smash attacks with reads, and punishes!

 

[DHD]

I find them decent as frame traps.

Especially magnet - jump cancel up smash. Which leads to back air on Jiggs at kill percent on some stages, so there's definitely some merit to his smashes.

Down smash can gimp spacies and other heavy characters like snake if they DI wrong, but it's finicky.

 

[Denjinpachi]

One thing i think is highly underutilized in general is Ness' upsmash in general. Especially in fast faller match ups, because of the fact that it can reach out further than his own up air, and leave them in a long enough state of hitstun that you can be creative with follow ups. hitting spacies with it during and up throw chain grab is pretty sick, and it can catch them trying to jump out when you use it ambiguously as a mix up towards the higher to mid percents of the chain throw.